We use IBM Spectrum Control for performance analytics and reporting.
In my opinion, it's the best monitoring and report creation tool for IBM storage devices. You can do a lot of performance stats and reports with very nice tools for IBM storage devices.
The initial setup for IBM Spectrum Control is a bit complicated. They should also make it easier to integrate and use the Cosmos Analytics tool, which is very complicated.
I want IBM to add a feature for microcode operations. We have, for example, plenty of storage devices, and I have to connect directly to every storage device, upload microcode, and start the upgrade procedure.
I would like IBM to have something similar to Brocade Network Advisor. There is a repository with microcode, and you just download the microcode to the Spectrum Control, and after that, choose what storage devices you would like to upgrade and just start upgrading these devices. It would be very nice if it's simplified.
I have been using IBM Spectrum Control for two years.
Spectrum Control is really stable. In most cases, we did not see any real problems with this product during the last two years. It's been really stable, and according to our company's upgrade strategy, we do not upgrade to the latest version. We just upgrade to the previous version if it's stable, and the IBM support website has a lot of information on every version.
It's not scalable because of our configuration. You can install several instances of this product. On top of that, you can install one main server or instance and connect all instances to this main system and see all the information, But you can only scale vertically, not horizontally.
It's possible to install Db2 on one server, Spectrum Control on another server, and Cosmos Analytics on a third server and connect to all of these systems. It's very complicated and difficult for me, and it's easier with all these installations on one server.
Technical support could be a little better. I have opened several cases, and in most cases, the answer was that it's was a defect, and a fix will be released in version 5.2 or 5.3. Or if we would like to do a quick fix, they can send some files or some instructions on how to fix it. Or we could just wait for the official update on their support website.
It's a complicated installation if you have not experienced it before. The latest version is 5.4.2, is a little less complicated, but the default version 5.4 or even 5.3 was very complicated to configure and install.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM Spectrum Control a nine.